1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electro-luminescent lighting arrangement having multiple functions, and in particular to an electro-luminescent night light device combined with additional lighting elements, the additional lighting elements having a different brightness and/or other lighting characteristics than the electro-luminescent element to enable the combined device to perform different lighting functions, such as serving as both a night light and a flashlight, indicator or warning light, lantern, or lamp.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Electro-luminescent lighting arrangements have been proposed for use in a variety of specific contexts, including illumination of footwear, headwear, backpacks, safety guides, moving objects, flying objects, containers, timepieces, and audio equipment, because of their flexibility, low power consumption, and low operating temperature, and their relative brightness, color choice, and wide viewing angle in comparison with other low power consumption devices.
The characteristic of low power consumption is particularly useful in the context of night lights. While the quality of light emitted by an electro-luminescent element is not well adapted for general illumination purposes, it is ideal for providing background illumination.
The purpose of such night lights is to provide low intensity illumination sufficient to enable a person to distinguish objects so as to be able to move about in a room or find items such as glasses, a refrigerator door, a light switch, or the snooze button on an alarm clock, or to comfort young children, while permitting sleeping and minimizing power consumption. Because of the quality of light emitted by electro-luminescent elements, their negligible power consumption in comparison with incandescent lights, their relative thinness and flexibility, wide viewing angle and color selection, and their ability to be cut into a variety of shapes, character, indicia, and logos, electro-luminescent elements offer significant advantages over incandescent lights for such purposes.
The problem addressed by the present invention is that such night lights are generally limited to home use in a static location. There are many situations where the soft lighting and negligible power consumption of electro-luminescent night lights would be useful, but where brighter lighting is also needed. While electro-luminescent lighting elements can be used in a wide variety of devices, such as the universal safety light described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/746,381, filed Nov. 8, 1996, and now allowed, the situation occurs that if the consumer is faced with the choice, for example, of taking a safety light or a night light on a camping trip, or of stocking a cabin with night lights or kerosene lanterns, the consumer will of necessity choose the former, even though it might be nice in both situations to have a night light handy. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to provide electro-luminescent night lights with additional functions (or, conversely, to provide conventional lighting devices with electro-luminescent night light functions).
A multiple function electro-luminescent night light arrangement is disclosed in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/925,122, filed Sep. 8, 1997 (herein incorporated by reference). In this multiple function night light arrangement, an electro-luminescent night light of the type disclosed in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/910,212, filed Aug. 13, 1997 (also herein incorporated by reference), is combined with an electrical outlet or wall mounted security device, switch board, decorative cover plate or board, or other devices in order to increase the versatility of the electro-luminescent night light arrangement. The present invention further increases the versatility of such an electro-luminescent night light arrangement by adding lighting elements other than electro-luminescent elements to the night light.
Copending application Ser. No. 08/959,463, filed Oct. 23, 1998, and also incorporated herein by reference, discloses various embodiments that combine electro-luminescent light arrangements with additional lighting elements. However, the additional lighting elements are part of a conventional electrical light fixture, whereas the present invention, in various embodiments, adds additional lighting elements to what is essentially a night light that can be plugged directly into an electrical outlet to serve as a night light or, alternatively, adds electro-luminescent lighting elements to electrically powered lamps and in addition nonelectrically powered lighting arrangements, thereby greatly extending the number of applications for the electro-luminescent concept.
In addition to the above-cited copending patent applications, a number of prior U.S. patents disclose use of electro-luminescent elements in night lights. These include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,662,408, 4,927,376, 4,664,473, 4,138,628, 3,061,716, 3,056,697, 2,809,316, and 3,307,030. However, all of the night lights disclosed in these patents are unsuitable to be adapted to include additional lighting elements, and are in general limited to out-of-date glass type hard panel of single panel electro-luminescent lighting elements.
In contrast, the present invention combines flexible panel, strip, tube, or fiber type electro-luminescent lighting elements with additional lighting elements to provide lighting devices that achieve new levels of convenience and versatility. The additional lighting elements can be used to provide illumination in case of power failure, provide flash or warning light functions, or simply increase the attractiveness of the lighting provided by the night light by combining the soft light emitted by an electro-luminescent element with brighter light as desired or necessary. For example, the addition of lighting elements other than electro-luminescent elements to an electro-luminescent night light can permit the night light to be used both indoors and outdoors, in a variety of different environments, and for such diverse purposes as traffic control, camping, road construction, navigation, and emergency lighting, with power consumption being optimized when the electro-luminescent element is the only lighting element illuminated.
The additional lighting elements can include virtually any known type of lighting element, such as light emitting diodes and incandescent, fluorescent, cold cathode, mercury vapor, and halogen lighting elements, and even non-electrically powered oil, chemical, gas and other fuel burning lamps of various types, as a result of which the night light of the invention can be used in a virtually unlimited number of different applications, combining the function of a night light with the functions of, for example, a table lamp, wall lamp, oil lantern, gas lantern, fluorescent tube lamp, camping lamp, entrance door lamp, chandelier, and flash light.
The above-mentioned flexible electro-luminescent panels, strips, tubes, or fibers can be provided by any of a number of commercially available or previously proposed types of electro-luminescent lighting elements, such as the electro-luminescent panels having discrete phosphor coatings disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,817, and in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/729,408 (allowed), Ser. No. 08/734,872 (pending), and Ser. No. 08/746,706 (pending), each of which is incorporated by reference herein, as well as the three-dimensional electro-luminescent tube arrangement disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/758,393, which is also incorporated by reference herein. In addition, the invention can use electro-luminescent strips or elements other than the panels or tubes described above, and may also be used with the optical effects device disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/841,624 (pending), also incorporated herein by reference, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/489,160 (abandoned).